Page 48 of First Light

Mostly she was furious that Lachlan was trying to act like the reasonable, protective boyfriend when he was a liar. She wanted fresh air and she wanted sunlight, but sunlight wasn’t possible here, so she’d at least take the fresh air.

Carys reached the ground floor of the castle and saw the double doors that led out into the courtyard in front of her. Two guards were on either side.

“Lady Ser— Carys. We have instructions to keep you in the castleuntil Lord Robb?—”

“Castle.” She nodded. “Fine. I’ll stay in thecourtyard, but if you try to keep me in this stone tower” —she could hear Lachlan’s feet coming down the stairs after her— “I will scream bloody murder, do you understand me? I’m pissed off at him” —she pointed over her shoulder— “and I do not want to see him. Make sense?”

One guard looked down at her feet in confusion, but the other nodded. “Please stay in the courtyard, my lady. We can’t protect you if you leave the castle walls.”

“Fine.” She didn’t want to make their jobs harder, but she felt a definite punch of satisfaction when she pushed the wooden doors open and walked into the cool morning air.

The castle courtyard was far calmer than it had been the day before. Maybe yesterday had been a market day, but that morning the only people milling around appeared to be workers and a few of the children she’d seen before.

She gulped down the cold air and wrapped her cape around herself. Bonnie had insisted on fastening a cape to her tunic earlier, and Carys had thought it was just for show.

It was not. The air was freezing.

She stalked across the courtyard, heading for a green space where horses were grazing and it looked like there were some small apple trees that still had fruit hanging on them.

Apple trees like the ones behind Duncan’s house.

Near the fairy murder forest.

In the magical alternate realm.

Where her father’s twin was still living and her boyfriend was a prince.

Carys reached the grass and stopped, breathing in the heady smell of grass and fresh earth that reminded her, just a little, of home. She stood on the bare earth, her feet warm and comfortable in Seren’s old boots, and felt the firm ground beneath her when every other thing felt tenuous and strange.

The squat man she’d seen yesterday was sitting on a stone benchunder a nearby awning, smoking a thin wooden pipe and staring at her as he idly scratched his fuzzy pointed ears. He narrowed his eyes, staring at Carys until she looked away.

Judging by his ears, he was some type of fae, but Carys didn’t know which. There were countless variations on fae mythology across the world, and she had no idea how much of what she’d read in books matched reality in this strange mirror world. There was no listing for the Shadowlands in theOxford Companion to World Mythology.

Maybe Lachlan and Duncan were right. She’d made the impetuous decision the day before that she wanted to stay to see Seren’s father, but maybe this was a bad idea. This place was a foreign country on a whole other level. What was she doing here?

She loved Lachlan, but she was mad as hell at him, and the kind, uncomplicated man she’d met in Baywood had ended up being someone entirely different. They’d only been together four months. Did it matter that they’d been four of the happiest months of her life?

Did she even know who he was?

“My lady, can I be of assistance?” A female guard walked over and stood at attention. “The castle guard are at your service.”

Carys blinked and looked up. “Uh… no. Th—” God, she had to get out of that habit. The guard was human, but the way she was going, she could accidentally indebt herself to a random fae just by automatic California politeness. “I appreciate your offer, but no.”

The guard seemed to hesitate, but then she blurted out, “I served under your sister.”

The corner of Carys’s mouth pulled up. “Really?”

The guard nodded. “Lady Seren was a magnificent warrior and a dead-accurate archer, my lady. Very admired by the castle guard.”

Carys warmed to the stoic woman. “I never knew her. I wish I had.”

“She was a great lady, mum.” The guard nodded, then broke away, walking back to the group of guards who were gathered by a group of women hanging laundry.

No wonder Lachlan had loved her. Carys’s sister had clearly beenbeloved by everyone in the castle. She was an admired warrior, a princess, adragon lord.

How could Carys compete with that? She was a depressed assistant college professor with no family, a little house in the forest that needed a new roof, and questionable survival skills.

No matter what Lachlan said now, could she ever trust his feelings or her own?

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